The Tune

I watched this years ago when I must have been twelve or thirteen, and then saw it again when I was about seventeen, and although there was a gap of no more then five years I felt as though the time in-between was far greater. I am now twenty two and recently saw a trailer for this movie and in one frame everything that I loved about the film returned, I can't honestly remember the details of this movie but a few songs and some great images have stayed in my head ever since I saw it the for the first time. I have yet to see it again and to be honest am resisting trying to seek it. It seems strange to say but on the couple of occasions that I watched this movie both times were purely by chance, channel surfing at about two in the morning and on both occasions I was almost reduced to tears by the end (Yes guys do cry as well).

How we view this movie is purely subjective, it is a simple story of a man and his 'tune' but there seems so much to take away from it, it mirrors the French story 'the little prince' in many ways in that to watch it you have to be detached from any sense of realism, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist and feel what the artist is trying to convey. I'm sure if I rented it now and got all my friends round telling them this was the best movie I ever seen, halfway through it they would ever laugh their ass's off (with good reason) or say it was 'OKAY', I don't want that to happen, this movie has to be seen on your own circumstances to be understood, meaning you have to be taken away by it, The Tune can not be approached as a movie which is objectively a 'great movie', it is for you to decide and enjoy.

I hope for the day when I'm grey and old and this movie will like an old pal appear on the screen and I'm whisked back to my strange teenage years, yes I know it is a totally whimsical view of life, but that is what The Tune means to me, a small insignificant part of my youth, a part which I'm sure will surface to then disapear again countless times through out the years. "Alas this old timer sure does rattle on".

Del (voiced by Daniel Nieden) is a songwriter searching for inspiration, especially because if he doesn't find any soon, his boss Mr. Mega (voiced by Marty Nelson), of Mega Music, is going to fire him. On his way to the Mega Music office, he takes a wrong turn and ends up in a song-filled land that just might provide a muse.

The most frustrating aspect of The Tune is that it easily has the potential to be a 10. The animation is charming and effective, with absorbing surrealistic touches. Writer/director Bill Plympton (along with writers Maureen McElheron and P.C. Vey) has a knack for crafting a disarmingly simple but twisted fantasy tale. However, my initial enthusiasm was brought down a few notches by the songs. And as this is basically an animated musical, if there is a problem with the music, it seriously affects the film.

It's not that the music is bad, although some of the recordings of music are bad from an engineering perspective. Rather, for a work that's otherwise so imaginative--visually and plot-wise--the music and most of the lyrics are boilerplate. The music is like a survey of generic, older pop styles (tin pan alley jazz, 70s country, rockabilly, blues, and so on). It reminded me of a cross between those "rhythm accompaniment" presets on older Casio keyboards and an audition tape for a cruise ship musician (the latter, because quite a few songs had decent guitar work on top of otherwise formulaic music). When everything else about the film is so creative and rule breaking, I want music that's creative and rule breaking, too. Most of the songs follow the same structural formula, and at their worst, slow the film down because they feel like padding.

Still, Plympton and his animation crew frequently come to the rescue during the songs with excellent visuals--the hotel manager's song and the surf/dance song particularly stand out in my mind. The Tune is definitely worth viewing, and I can't wait to see more of Plympton's work. I would just like to see him paired with a composer who is as inventive aurally as he is visually.

A 7 out of 10 from me.

The Tune is a truly great film for any age. Funny and even (in places) sophisticated for adults, with plenty of wackiness and crazy Bill Plympton stuff. The music is also great, in fact I started out looking for a soundtrack and ended up here bragging on this film. It's silly fun in the traditional 4-frames-per-second that Plympton if famous for, as well at a few bits similar to his famous "How to Quit Smoking" cartoon. A plot synopsis is sort of a requirement to fill enough space here on IMDb, but the plot is really less than half the point. As far as the plot goes, it's pretty thin. A songwriter has a bunch of adventures getting from his home/office to the Mega Music building where evil corporate scumbag Mr Mega waits like a spider in its web. The main character, Del, is a dweeb, and his apple-cheeked girlfriend Didi is Mr Mega's secretary. The point of the movie is to enjoy some crackin' animation, hear some weird but great songs, and in general have fun. The subplot of Del's struggle to gain his lady love by collecting these songs is nice, even poignant in places, but still secondary. Mostly just have fun. My DVD has a weird place near the end where the sound drops a good bit for that last number.

The original songs for this movie are amazing, but not nearly as amazing as Plympton's animation. Well worth shutting yourself in to watch, perhaps with other examples of excellence in feature length, independent animation. This ranks with the work of Bakshi, and it's worth supporting animators who don't work for Disney, simply for the fact that their work is not homogenized or dictated by the studio. Plympton gave us this twelve years ago, and we haven't had many animators of note since who could give us a quality product like his. It begs the question, "why not?" I think this film is a must-see for any aspiring animator, to show them that it can be done, and done well.

You have to give Bill Plympton credit. He is a filmmaker who, despite never gaining the commercial success that Walt Disney, Matt Groening, or Seth MacFarlane has over the years, still has churned out dozens of original animated shorts and a handful of movies. His animation style may seem archaic compared to the 3D animation that is popular today. However, unlike many animation giants, you gain a certain level of respect for Plympton when you learn that he drew more than 90% of the frames for "The Tune" himself. For a 69-minute movie, that's not an easy feat, and unheard of amongst almost all animators.

"The Tune" was not an easy movie to animate, that's for sure, but Plympton's effort to create his first full-length animated feature was well worth it. It tells the story of Del, a struggling songwriter (bearing an amusing, coincidental resemblance to Conan O'Brien) who is under pressure to write a hit single for smug music mogul Mr. Mega in order to make ends meet and win back the love of his girlfriend, Didi, who happens to be Mr. Mega's assistant. That's the plot in a nutshell, which creates a really good conflict in and of itself. The movie gets interesting when Del goes on a bizarre journey to find inspiration for his songs. He encounters along the way a happy-go-lucky mayor of a town called Flooby Nooby, an Elvis- impersonating dog, a wise prophet with strange face-changing techniques, a morose cab-driver without a nose, and other interesting characters.

The story and characters are most definitely outlandish, but not abhorrent, and are often charming and funny. The allure this film exhibits is aided by very memorable and catchy songs that you will be unable to get out of your head once the movie ends. The song "Flooby Nooby" made me laugh, and I also thought the Dolly Parton-esquire country ballad "Good Again" sung by the lonely female bartender was touching and poignant. This remark is coming from a writer who dislikes country music, too. I even thought the reprise of Del's own "My Love For You Is Equal To" brought the song from amateurish to distinguished.

The story was solid, but had its pacing thrown off a bit by some of Plympton's own animated shorts that he tied into the movie. Although I thought his shorts "The Wise Man" (1991) and "Tango Schmango" (1990) became incorporated into the movie surprisingly well, "Push Comes To Shove" (1991) ran on for a bit too long. The latter short, which involves two men standing side by side and doing strange cartoonishly-violent things to each other's faces, was funny, but slowed the pace of the story considerably. The pace picked up, however, when Del asks himself out loud, "Why am I still watching this?"

While "The Tune" has not yet gained the popularity it deserves, Bill Plympton thankfully is still working and gaining credibility for animating full-length movies, shorts, and, more recently, the music video "Heard Em Say" for Kanye West. "The Tune" is still available on DVD, and is a worthy addition to anyone's video library. It's animation may seem crude at first glance, but kids will love it. Fortunately, adults will too. It's original, well-animated, and ahead of its time even though its hand drawn. While films like "Aladdin" (1992) overshadowed "The Tune" upon its release in 1992, "The Tune" still deserves to be watched, not just heard.